Proof that old dogs can learn new tricks: The two owners of Indique listened when their two sons suggested they refresh their Indian eatery, an overlooked fixture in Cleveland Park. Go now, and you’ll find brighter dining rooms, intriguing cocktails and lots of fresh tastes, starting with a host of street snacks, including cornets of lentil wafers stuffed with crab and green chilies and not-so-“miniature” dosas offered with spiced potatoes and coconut chutney. A collection of dishes “From My Hometown” explores memories from chef K.N. Vinod’s native Kerala, in southern India, including bites of beef ignited with peppercorns. Some items need more TLC. Lamb vindaloo is neither tender nor particularly spicy, and rice wafers bend when they ought to snap. The brightest development is the “unlimited” weekend brunch, a chance to try as many as two dozen small plates for a bargain $20. Make sure the crackling fried cauliflower fired up with green chilies is on your list.

The 20-something sons of the owners of Indique in Cleveland Park left their jobs in New York last year to develop a fast-casual restaurant in the District. Yet to open, Rasa represents a merger of their names: Rahul Vinod, a former investment banker, and Sahil Rahman, a onetime consultant. A byproduct of their time in Washington, where they’re learning the restaurant ropes at Indique, has been the sons’ push to update their fathers’ two-story, 14-year-old establishment. The dads, executive chef K.N. Vinod and business partner Surfy Rahman, listened — and customers are the big beneficiaries.

In May, Indique emerged from a design refresh that finds brighter dining rooms and more murals on the walls. In July, the restaurant launched a weekend brunch service that showcases Indian street food. For $20, diners can compose a meal from among two dozen small plates; “unlimited” suggests you could try them all, should you be so inclined. Pickled chicken, sliced purple onion and red bell pepper are mounded on a round of flaky, whole-wheat paratha: an Indian taco designed for fire-eaters thanks to red chilies in the seasoning. More delicacy comes by way of the sweet potato chaat, three orange scoops of roasted mashed tuber, bright with lemon juice and coriander, presented on a banana leaf.

The most dramatic eye-opener is a miniature dosa. The crepe, made from lentils and rice and shaped into a cone, rises high on a plate that includes coconut two ways (as a chutney and sambal) and potatoes threaded with curry leaves and mustard seeds.

The brunch cocktails are as inspired as the cooking. One tamarind margarita is likely to result in two.

Dinner is also worthy of a toast. Vinod has expanded the evening menu to include street snacks, only some of which carry over from brunch, and a few dishes from his native Kerala, in south India. Cauliflower dipped in a batter of corn flour and egg, then fried to a glassy crackle, pulses with heat from green chilies. Braised pork belly reverberates with warm spices, the meat’s vinegar sting tamed with jaggery, unrefined dark sugar. A category called “From My Hometown” stars a fish curry: cod in a cloak of what looks like lava and smacks of ginger, curry leaf and tart Malabar tamarind. To eat the vivid dish is to be reminded that Kerala is known by its people as “God’s own country.”

The owners’ sons have infused Indique with fresh energy and made their fathers happy. Originally, “we had no clue they would continue” at the longtime restaurant, says the elder Vinod. Although he and his partner have no plans to step away anytime soon, the chef says, “this is the passing of a baton.”

Tom SietsemaTom Sietsema has been The Washington Post's food critic since 2000. He previously worked for the Microsoft Corp., where he launched sidewalk.com; the Seattle Post-Intelligencer; the San Francisco Chronicle; and the Milwaukee Journal. He has also written for Food & Wine. Follow